14
Is This the End? H2Oi 2014 Event Coverage

After 10 years of making the 14 hour drive from Montreal, Canada to Ocean City, Maryland, the 2014 edition of H2O International had to be one of the worst in memory.What used to be the Mecca of Volkswagen and Audi automotive events, the main strip is now overcrowded with many non-European cars. Drift cars, beaters, and a whole heap of Japanese and American modified cars have overfilled the streets of Ocean City to the point where nearly every purr of an R32 motor is accompanied by the high pitched revving of a Civic.I understand controlling access to a public road to only allow European cars to pass is not possible, but I feel that so many of the cars and people shouldn’t come to OCMD dueing H2Oi weekend as they are destroying, if not have already destroyed, the weekend for so many core enthusiasts.One of the worst things for me this past weekend was the horrible traffic on Saturday on the strip. That weekend was as much about going up and down the strip in your car as the show it self (if not more), now you can’t just drive up and down the strip and enjoy it. You go one way it’s fine then go the other way and get stuck in traffic for 30-45 minutes. That’s in part why the non Euro cars are ruining the weekend for the rest of us.Many of the issues that have happened in the past (like the Toyota Supra staircase accident that nearly took out an entire house) have brought down the wrath of local police on a massive scale.As for people complaining about the increased police presence this year, they need to seriously keep quiet. The OCPD are some of the most understanding and tolerant that I’ve ever met, especially considering the sheer amount of reckless and dangerous behavior that has been happening each year.People complaining about cops in Ocean City during H2Oi weekend reminded me of some people in my home province of Québec with the recent Hellaflush “law”. You can’t have it both ways, if you do dumb stuff or put people’s lives at risk, don’t come crying when your car gets towed. When all is said and done, I will probably end up attending again in 2015 simply because at the end of the day, I still had a lot of fun and was entertained however I am already seeing a lot of people losing interest with H2Oi after this year’s installation.Once I got over the fact that I couldn’t change the variety of cars present on the strip, the experience itself was awesome. The weather was the best it’s been in years. The beach and ocean are always something special for me and my friends as we enjoy taking our last warm swim of the summer in Ocean City. Seacrets night club was very crowded but still an awesome way to spend my Saturday evening.Here’s to the friends, memories, and happy times of H2Oi 2014, and the hopes of a better outcome in 2015.